Who is it? Vs. Who is he? - English Language Learners Stack Exchange A) If the pronoun is the subject of a sentence, use he If the pronoun is the object of a sentence, use him Your example should be: Who is he An example where you would use both: I've seen him - who is he? B) If someone called you on the telephone and you do not know them you might ask: Who are you? or Who is this? For some reason I can't explain, the question "who is it?" is not idiomatic
phrase meaning - Would saying who is this in normal tone be rude in . . . Note that "who is this?" has a different tone on the phone and in your situation On the phone, when you're asking who is calling, the stress goes on the word "is" In person, when you've seen an unfamiliar person and you're asking who that person is, the stress goes on the word "this"
Who are or who is? - English Language Usage Stack Exchange I have a sentence: They are planning to have holidays soon What will be the question? Who IS planning to have their holidays soon? or Who ARE planning to have their holidays soon?
Over the phone: I know who that is vs I know who this is I agree with Kristina: No native speaker I've ever heard has ever said "Who is that?" or "I know who that is" in a phone conversation We use the determiner this to refer to someone whose voice we literally hold in our hand A third party, hearing us on the phone, might ask us "Who is that?" but this is always used to refer to the party on one's own line
Whats a polite way of asking who are you? on the phone? It's a funny difference Maybe because "Who are you?" is a direct address, to YOU; we use it when we don't recognize someone and confront them about it "Who is this?" is more like what you would discreetly ask a friend at a party about another person you don't recognize but don't want to confront It's used on the phone, but I can also see it being used across a closed door for example Both
this ? Or Whos he - English Language Learners Stack Exchange Both pairs of phrases are perfectly acceptable Which to choose depends on context "Who is this" or "Who is that" makes sense when you can refer to the person (perhaps by pointing to them in a photograph, or referring back to something someone just said, though the reference could be implicit, too) whereas "who is he" or "who is she" doesn't require that sort of frame of reference